[dbonnett]

As part of planning for our move, I was hoping somebody already in New Zealand could aid me in testing out something. I do technology consulting for small businesses and home offices and after we relocate I intend to continue working with my clients here as well as new clients in NZ. My company uses a remote control program to fix problems and I want to see how it works across the Pacific.

What I need is for someone with broadband (and a Windows XP machine) to let me test out remote control between here and NZ. It would be preferable to have Skype so that we can talk as well during the test. You don't need to be a technical expert to do this (that's my job :D ), just able to follow a few simple instructions in a PM or email. I won't have access to your machine once the test is over and you can see everything I do. My interest is in seeing how responsive and stable the connection is.

The whole thing will take about 15 minutes and I will gladly compensate in beer/wine/coffee or something nice that we can bring you from the US (we will arrive in June-Sept 08). I will work to your schedule so that it is convenient for you - I am GMT-6 (basically 18 hours behind NZ).

If you are willing to help or have any questions, please PM me or post here.

Thanks!
-dave-

[JasonS]

but this story doesn't bode well for high volume transfers.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=49&objectid=10447187

Since the example in this story is probably large packet TCP file transfers, then latency, and of course bandwidth, has to be a big factor.

Since windows remote share protocols are relatively lighter on the bandwidth needs, I suspect your biggest concern is going to be latency issues. Of course optimizing the connections by blocking wall papers, limiting color bit depth, etc will help.

I've used VNC and remote desktop over the WAN at the company I work for, going from the western US to Europe. My guess is, at times, its going to be very laggy, probably still usable for those with the patience, but laggy nonetheless. If you can, post the results of your tests when you have them.

Jason

[dbonnett]

but this story doesn't bode well for high volume transfers.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=49&objectid=10447187

Since the example in this story is probably large packet TCP file transfers, then latency, and of course bandwidth, has to be a big factor.
...
I've used VNC and remote desktop over the WAN at the company I work for, going from the western US to Europe. My guess is, at times, its going to be very laggy, probably still usable for those with the patience, but laggy nonetheless. If you can, post the results of your tests when you have them.

Jason

Thanks for the link and info! Latency is definitely the factor I am concerned about. We use a customized version of VNC, tuned for low bandwidth; it does better than RDP in my experience. I have actually used it between Colorado and Ghana, West Africa (for a computer in an Internet cafe no less) - it did lag but was workable. I will let you know what I find out.

WRT the referenced article, I wouldn't be surprised if traffic shaping and prioritization by protocol were in place and that ftp and its ilk are throttled back. Given that people are able to use Skype and other VOIP apps to the US and Europe, I hope the latency won't be too horrific, but we will see.
-db-

[JasonS]

You might be right about throttling on ftp protocols being throttled. I suppose you could test the ftp straight then test it using SFTP to see if the encryption throws off the shaping detection. Of course you'll take a bit of a performance hit due to the encryption, and it might be enough to fool the shaping tools.

I just read an article about Rogers Communications in Canada is seemingly trying to throttle all encrypted traffic, bringing even benign things like encrypted email to a crawl. I'm not really sure how they can detect encrypted traffic, as it looks like random data anyhow, so they must have some SPI going on to identify type of traffic when connections are initiated.

Anyhow, we're way off into the weeds now. Good luck on your tests!

Jason

[IanW99]

Will you test be valid if you try it from the US to NZ, surely you will need to test from NZ to US (download / upload speeds are generally different)?

What broadband connection type are you looking to test for in NZ? I would expect most people to be on ADSL2+ but some are on cable e.g. Telestra Clear which have a much better bandwidth (up/down)?

If it helps, I regularly use MSTSC from NZ to UK (ADSL2+) with very little lag (not normally noticable).

Ian

[sfordjasiri]

I am not yet in NZ but live in a very rural location in California. I have used a satellite internet connection and a microwave connection. The latency problems for running Cisco VPN and other VPN software made satellite connections almost unusable even though the download speed of large files when NOT using VPN was over 1Mps. (Upload was about 200Kbs.)

The microwave connection, which had a similar download speed was fine.

I used two different satellite companies, (Wild Blue by Hughes, and DirectWay), but both had similar problems with VPN. The download/upload speed doesn't really matter. It is the latency that is the problem.

So, I would suspect VPN over satellite will be a problem for you as well.

[dbonnett]

Lots of good thoughts here!
- Jason, I will do some checking, if possible, to see how file transfer responds. Some of the ISPs can be ridiculous in their roadblocks, so nothing would surprise me.

- Ian, you are spot on - this check will be not completely representative since the traffic is asymmetric (download to NZ is faster than upload), but it will give me a better sense than I have now. I am planning to be in Wanaka on the South Island, I know there is broadband in town, but not sure if it is TelstraClear or just ADSL via Telecom, so I don't know which connection I will have. That is good to know that your latency to the UK is decent. Right now I have a 1.5mb/869k DSL connection that has been fine for my use.

- sfordjasiri, the connection between NZ and the US is fiber optic, not satellite. I agree that latencies for sat links are too high for interactive use. More info on the link here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Cross_Cable)

I have an offer from one of the NZ forum members to test out my app in the next few days, so I will post my results (as well as other data) here once I have it.

[Marie P]

My husband has done this from NZ to Uk with my father in laws computer a couple of times .

You will have to chat with him.

Marie x

[TristanNZ]

Hi Dave,

I do the same sort of thing and rely on remote control software to support my clients. From NZ I used to support clients all over the world including UK with no problems, it does depend on the ISP, but I was using Telstraclear from NZ and had a 10Mps cable connection.

I'm not currently in Canada supporting my clients in New Zealand remotely using VNC Free edition and the built in Windows Remote Connection program, all works great from here to New Zealand.

Not sure if any of this helps you, but you should be fine from my experience.

[dbonnett]

Tristan,
Thanks for the feedback - your situation is very much like mine, so it is good to hear that you have been able to make it work.
I will have my business partner and staff in the US to handle on-site tasks and I am going to slowly shift my focus more towards research, strategy and project work when I relocate.
Take care,
-db-
Hi Dave,

I do the same sort of thing and rely on remote control software to support my clients. From NZ I used to support clients all over the world including UK with no problems, it does depend on the ISP, but I was using Telstraclear from NZ and had a 10Mps cable connection.

I'm not currently in Canada supporting my clients in New Zealand remotely using VNC Free edition and the built in Windows Remote Connection program, all works great from here to New Zealand.

Not sure if any of this helps you, but you should be fine from my experience.

[JasonS]

Wanaka is your destination, what a wonderful town! The beauty of Queenstown area without the size and as much tourism. Sure it's touristy (I hear it's crazy in the summer), but both times I've been there during the Spring, Queenstown was on a whole other level.

Good luck with your business there!

Jason

[dbonnett]

You wanna see crazy, try Crested Butte around the 4th when all of Texas comes to escape the heat :laugh We figured if we are going to make such a big move we should go where we really want to be, instead of 'compromising' on a bigger town.

Thanks to BarryP's awesome generosity, I was able to do my testing last night and the results were very positive: the VNC client was quite responsive and usable, even when I connected from NZ back to a machine in the US with Remote Desktop. Latency was ~250ms or less; not imperceptible but not crippling. Bandwidth from his ISP is quoted at 256kbs for overseas connections and speedtests were showing around 220kbs (even with the traffic to my machine). File transfers of 1MB over VNC took about 20secs, not screaming but again reasonable. We didn't try any VOIP but I know many people on ENZ do use it, so that is not a concern. All in all, it made me feel more comfortable about our plans.

Wanaka is your destination, what a wonderful town! The beauty of Queenstown area without the size and as much tourism. Sure it's touristy (I hear it's crazy in the summer), but both times I've been there during the Spring, Queenstown was on a whole other level.

Good luck with your business there!

Jason